Cool Facts
Amazing Facts About The Chinese New Year
The festival date changes every year because it follows the lunar calendar based on the movement of the moon. The Chinese New Year usually falls on a day between mid-January to mid-February.
Chinese New Year is also called as the Spring Festival, because it starts from Beginning of Spring.
There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals, rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig, in that order. 2020 is the year of Rat.
Chinese New Year was traditionally a time when people prayed to the harvest Gods for a bountiful year for crops in the next year.
About 2 billion people will be celebrating the Chinese New Year in 2020.
The world’s largest annual migration happens during the Chinese New Year. About 200 million mainland Chinese travel long distances for these holidays, and it is estimated that there are 3.5 billion journeys in China.
The Chinese New Year marks the world’s biggest annual fireworks. The fireworks are believed to ward off evil spirits.
Before the crackers were invented, people used to burn bamboos to ward off the evil spirits.
Certain foods are eaten during the Chinese New Year for their symbolic meaning, e.g.
Dumplings- represent wealth
Fish- sounds "surplus" in Chinese
Sticky fruitcake called Neen Gow or Nian Gow- gow sounds like the Chinese word gāo (高), which means "high." Eating Nian Gow symbolizes the desire for the coming year to be better than the last year.
Oranges and Tangerines are displayed because they are believe to bring good luck and fortune due to their pronunciation and characters.
Shou Sui is the practice of staying up until midnight as a family to greet the new year.
The Lantern Festival began more than 2000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu designated this day for worship rituals for Taiyi , one of the universe’s sovereigns.